Saint Nicholas of Myra

Oh look...he's wearing red too...;-) He is the patron saint of bakers, and I'm just guessing maybe that's why people leave cookies out on Christmas eve...? Anyway.....I have to make this a really short post. :-(

Because his parents died when he was a young man, he decided to devote all the money to a good use. He overheard that a man with three daughters lost his money and his daughters could not find a good husband because of their poverty, and the man was going to give them over to prostitution. So, at nighttime, Nicholas brought a bag of gold and threw it through the window of their house. It was the dowry for the eldest daughter, and he did the same for the rest of the other girls. He was watched by the father when he was doing it for the third daughter, and the man was truly thankful.

His story became a legend, and later popularized in America by the Dutch Protestants of New Amsterdam, changed the story of him from a saint, into a magician. :-( (Santa Claus = Sint Klaes = Saint Nicholas)